In an interview with Jom Petpradab in Cambodia on 17^th April, Taksin Shinawat confirmed that “reconciliation” means that “those who killed 91 people do not have to go to jail”. You can see him saying this in the 7^th minute of the video below.

In Bangkok in April and May 2010, the Military, hand in hand with the Abhisit Government, deliberately deployed armed troops and snipers to kill unarmed Red Shirt protestors who were demanding a return to democracy. A handful of soldiers were also killed by a hand grenade in April, probably by a rival military faction.

In July 2011, Taksin’s sister, Yingluk, and her Pua Thai Party, won a landslide election victory. Millions of Red Shirt supporters made this happen. Yet, immediately after their election victory the Government began increasing the use of the Lèse Majesté law against more radical Red Shirts who oppose the Monarchy-Military alliance. The non-political Aa-Kong, a 60 year old man, was caught up in this as well, being sent to prison for supposedly sending text messages. Those facing Lèse Majesté trials have repeatedly been denied bail. Yingluk was also photographed in many “best friend poses” with General Prayut Junocha, head of the Army. He is one of the guilty men who caused the 2010 blood bath. Government Ministers have stated very clearly that they will not support any amendment of Lèse Majesté. This is in direct opposition to the growing campaign against Lèse Majesté and attempts by progressive law academics to reform the Constitution by getting rid of military-initiated laws after the 2006 coup.

Taksin and his Pua Thai Party, which he advises from abroad, have always proclaimed their loyalty to the King. This is hardly surprising since all the Thai elites, including the Military, the business leaders and the politicians, all use the weak King to legitimise what they do. A key “coordinator” in all this is the President of the Privy Council, General Prem Tinsulanon. Previously Prem was vilified by Red Shirts and even Taksin, for being the supposed “master mind” of the 2006 coup. But recently Yingluk has also been posing for photos with Prem as one of his “best friends”. In the interview with Taksin (just before the 11^th minute), Taksin says that Prem “never gets involved with politics”. He ends his interview by saying, in a roundabout manner that he hopes to return to Thailand with the King’s best wishes.

The Thai ruling class has used bloody violence against civilian protestors in 1973, 1976, 1992, 2004 and 2010. Every time they have given themselves amnesty. Taksin is hoping to return to Thailand by walking on the corpses of dead Red Shirts and spitting in the faces of the political prisoners. He is also aware that as Prime Minister in 2004, he is responsible for the deaths of nearly 90 un-armed protestors in the South.

While cuddling up to Prem and the Generals, Taksin and the Yingluk Government are now pretending that the political crisis was merely a dispute between supporters of Abhisit’s Democrat Party and supporters of Thai Rak Thai / Pua Thai. This is a gross re-writing of history. In fact the crisis eventually caused deep divisions in Thai society between those who wanted Democracy and those who supported constant military intervention and restrictions in the right to vote and freedom of speech. A phoney parliamentary play is now being acted out between Pua Thai and the Democrats in order to deflect Red Shirt attention from the agreement between Pua Thai and the Military. The reality is that the Democrat Party was never the main agent of the dictatorship. It only formed a government in 2008 at the behest of the powerful Military. In his interview Taksin also distorted political facts by claiming that the election victory of Pua Thai showed that the majority of Thais wanted reconciliation where the Military and Democrat Party killers of 2010 would not go to jail.

By tying themselves too closely with the Pua Thai Government, the national Red Shirt movement (UDD) has ceased to be an independent social movement for democracy and its main role today is to de-mobilise the Red Shirts while the elites come to a compromise in order to protect their status quo.

Giles Ji Ungpakorn